For 75 years, the United Nations has mobilized committed people from around the world to achieve extraordinary outcomes for peace. The cause of peace has not been without sacrifice — more than 4,100 peacekeepers have lost their lives under the flag of UN Peacekeeping.

Canada has long played an important role in UN Peacekeeping ranking first in the number of peacekeepers provided during the Cold War. Canada reflects the values of the UN — leaving no one behind and reaching the furthest first — in the initiatives it supports including partnerships for the advancement of gender equality and the implementation of the women, peace and security agenda through the Elsie Initiative for Women in Peace Operations. Canada also supports international implementation of the Vancouver Principles on Peacekeeping and the Prevention of the Recruitment and Use of Child Soldiers as a contribution to protecting the rights of the child in conflict zones.

I am honoured to provide some remarks for this anthology which celebrates and commemorates the lives and work of Canadians who, in the words of UN Peacekeeping are “people striving to achieve extraordinary outcomes in difficult and often dangerous conditions”.

Ms. Jaime Webbe